The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, confirmed on Wednesday that it had been struck by at least 240 hack attacks and another 800 suspected hacks, jeopardizing mortgage information, Social Security numbers, and personal banking information of scores of Americans, according to congressional testimony.
Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney disclosed these figures under questioning by Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.) during a hearing on the agency's collection of American citizens' data and the risk this poses due to an increasing cyber threat.
The agency has faced questions over its large-scale collection of Americans' credit card transactions, home loan applications, and other major financial information.
The issue has topped the congressional agenda in the wake of concerns that rogue nation-states and other actors have hacked the U.S. database, risking the mass collection of sensitive financial information.